Written Answers Tuesday 5 September 2006

Scottish Executive

Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive by what date it will be possible for charities to apply to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator for approval to reorganise under the provisions of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

Johann Lamont: As explained in the answer to question S2W-27584 on 17 August 2006, we are currently developing regulations under section 39 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, which will implement a new regime for the reorganisation of charities, enabling charities to seek approval for reorganisation from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) if their constitutions do not permit them to make the change, rather than having to apply to court. These regulations will make provision about the form and manner of applications to OSCR. We intend to consult on the new regulations later this year, with a view to bringing them into force and commencing the provisions in sections 39 to 42 early next year. The exact date for commencing the regulations is dependent on the outcome of the consultation.

  Charities with the necessary powers in their constitutions can seek the consent of OSCR to reorganise under section 16. This section is already in force and OSCR is processing consents under it.

Environment

Mr Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether doctors, veterinarians and farmers are considered to be "operators" under the EU Environmental Liability Directive and would be considered liable for remediation costs in respect of environmental harm if that harm arose from their use of genetically modified vaccines, crops or other organisms unless Scottish implementing regulations define "operators" otherwise.

Ross Finnie: The Directive defines "operator" quite widely to include any person who operates or controls an activity, business or undertaking, irrespective of its private or public, profit or non-profit character. Therefore doctors, veterinarians and farmers can under certain circumstances fall within the scope of the EU Environmental Liability Directive.

  However, there would have to be "significant damage" to water, land and the environment and this is highly unlikely given that an environmental risk assessment is undertaken before a genetically modified organism is authorised for release.

Environment

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding will be made available to Scottish Natural Heritage over the next five years for the purpose of monitoring the effectiveness of management agreements entered into with landowners and tenants in the south of Scotland for the improvement of moorland habitats.

Rhona Brankin: Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) receives funding for all its activities in its annual Grant-in-Aid settlement. Decisions about the allocation of resources within the approved budget are a matter for the board of SNH. SNH’s plans take account of the need to provide for effective compliance monitoring of management agreements.

Environment

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding will be made available to Scottish Natural Heritage to ensure that there is continuing monitoring, after the end of a management agreement, of moorland habitats which have been the subjects of management agreements between Scottish Natural Heritage and landowners and their tenants in the south of Scotland.

Rhona Brankin: Where Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) management agreements come to an end and are replaced by a new agreement, compliance monitoring will continue to take place to ensure that contractual obligations are fulfilled. In other cases where an SNH management agreement ceases and is not replaced by any other form of funding support SNH plans to continue its general programme of site condition monitoring. It is for SNH to determine the appropriate level of resource necessary to fund these requirements within their annual grant-in-aid provision.

Forestry

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, for each project which has been considered for the award of a grant under the Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme, who the applicant was, how much grant was awarded, on what date the award was confirmed and what objective assessment processes were used to determine whether or not the application would succeed.

Rhona Brankin: We introduced the Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme in June 2003, and details of the payments made (and those to be claimed once the work has been satisfactorily completed), up to and including Friday 18 August 2006, have been published on the webpages of Forestry Commission Scotland and can be viewed at www.forestry.gov.uk/sfgsgrantdetails . The information about grants has been provided in different views and in a separate file to enable further analysis.

  For each component of grant in any scheme, details are provided: a reference number, name of the scheme, Forestry Commission Scotland Conservancy area, applicant’s name and (where appropriate) organisation, recipient of grant, local authority area, Ordnance Survey grid reference, date approved, objective type (purpose for which the grant was given), payment date, amount paid, and any outstanding grant. The scheme closed at the end of the August.

  The criteria, against which all applications have been judged, are given in the guidance for applicants published on the webpages (www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6T6CBC) together with the rules (www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6J6MGE) used to determine in which year grants would be paid.

Justice

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15561 by Cathy Jamieson on 22 April 2005, what the implementation date will be of the criminal history system replacement project.

Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Police Information Strategy intends to deliver the new criminal history system to the Scottish Criminal Record Office by the end of December 2006. A period of user acceptance testing will then be required and, subject to the satisfactory completion of that work, it is expected that the new system will be ready for operational use in June 2007.

Scottish Children's Reporter Administration

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review its position on the provision of additional resources for the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration to support front-line staff in tackling persistent young offending, in light of recently published figures showing an increase in the number of offenders.

Robert Brown: The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) is not responsible for managing or delivering services to tackle the needs and behaviour of persistent young offenders. SCRA’s overall annual grant-in-aid has increased by over £10 million since 2001 to over £24 million this year. We continually monitor resourcing requirements, in discussion with SCRA management, in order to optimise the administration’s effectiveness.

Telecommunications

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it issues to local authorities on determining what distance can be described as "close proximity" to residential areas and schools when considering planning applications for mobile telephone masts.

Johann Lamont: The Executive has not sought to define "close proximity" with regard to the siting of mobile telephone masts in the vicinity of schools or in residential areas. Planning guidance on the siting and design of these masts is contained in National Planning Policy Guideline 19 and Planning Advice Note 62, both entitled Radio Telecommunications . Copies of the publications are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 15218 and 16043 respectively), or can be viewed on the Scottish Executive’s Planning website. www.scotland.gov.uk/planning .

Tourism

John Farquhar Munro (Ross, Skye and Inverness West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many bookings visitscotland.com has taken in 2006, also broken down by region.

Patricia Ferguson: The number of bookings that visitscotland.com has taken between January and mid-August 2006 is shown in the following table, broken down by VisitScotland local office area:

  

Area
Bookings


Aberdeen and Grampian
5,643


Angus and Dundee
1,431


Argyll, Loch Lomond and Forth Valley
13,337


Ayrshire and Arran
3,324


Dumfries and Galloway
2,639


Edinburgh and Lothians
20,948


Fife
3,435


Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley
6,647


Highlands
24,691


Orkney
984


Perthshire
5,842


Scottish Borders
2,457


Shetland
567


Western Isles
1,122


Total Bookings
93,067



  In addition, just under 1,000 accommodation-inclusive holiday packages of various types have been booked on visitscotland.com so far this year. Examples include coach tours around Scotland, as well as event-based packages including accommodation and a ticket to an event.

Water Safety

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is any minimum frequency for testing the effluent from sewage treatment works with a design population equivalent of 15,000 or over and, if so, what maximum permitted length of time is allowed between taking measurements.

Rhona Brankin: The minimum frequency of monitoring of effluent from waste water treatment works is specified in Section 3, Part II of the Urban Waste Water Treatment (Scotland) Regulations 1994. The minimum number of samples to be taken annually at a plant with a design population equivalent (p.e.) greater than 15,000 is twelve, and if the plant is greater in size than 50,000 p.e., then twenty-four samples are required. There is no maximum permitted length of time between sample collection, but the regulations require that samples be collected at regular intervals during the year.